I can't wait for Saturday! One of the largest model railroading expos in the country is starting then.. ITS TRAINFEST TIME!!!!! According to their website (http://www.trainfest.com) there are 2 days, 17 hours, 15 minutes and 45 seconds until it opens! (yes I obsess about this.) It takes place every year in Milwaukee at the State Fairgrounds Expo Center. There will be 60 layouts from Z(the smallest) to G (garden railroads). Over 4 square football fields of trains and hobby dealers. Last year I got an A-B (cab and no cab, respectively) of Fairbanks Morse C-liners for $76.00 (DCC INCLUDED!)! (If I hadn't bought them at Trainfest, I would have had to spend around $215.00 for the pair) So there are a lot of bargans. If you like trains, come on down! It starts Nov. 10th and ends Nov. 12th. Every year! (I'M TOTALLY GEEKING OUT!!!!!) There are also usually several people who model ore and coal docks. Every year there is at least one person who has a scale model of the Edmund Fitzgerald. One guy detailed the interior of the Fitz, right down to the boilers (with a small LED light in them) He also added a smoke machine to the funnel.

I am trying to figure out how many HO scale 20' ore jennies to have in a train to create the impression of a taconite hauler. I know that it is impossible to run a (scale) full length ore train, so how many cars should one be to create the impression of a heavy train that will need two 2-10-2 double heading. how many would you suggest?

Stumbled on this site searching for info on modeling a coal mine complete with operating mine loco. Seeing this modeling thread I thought this video might be of some interest to some folks here. This is a project I've been working on for a battery style mine loco in N scale narrow gauge (Nn3 running on Z scale track) and am nearing completion of the unit. The model in this test video is under 6 scale feet in height (13/32") and the final is coming in around 5 scale feet (about 3/8") and either one, to my knowledge, is hands down the world's smallest chassis that runs in the customary fashion for model trains, powered and controlled through the rails.

What prompted me to start developing this over a year ago was the interest in adding a coal mine and operating mine loco to an N scale layout and then discovering there was nothing available and further, there wasn't even an operating chassis made that was near small enough to scratch build my own believable version. They were all WAY too high, killing the effect. Being an old retired machinery designer and still actively consulting which gives me access to some very nice machining equipment through one of my customers, I decided to build my own. As that shop owner has seen it develop he has expressed interest in actually producing it for sale and so.... there goes my retirement. I hope this is at least interesting to some.

Thanks, guys. Yes, it is roughly based on a larger (10 ton?) Mancha unit that I was able to get some dimensions from for general feasibility. No attempt was made to actually model specific details in that video, just to get the general shape and envelope dimensions to see if it looked about right from a galloping horse. In Nn3 (1:160 scale using Z 1:220 track), which that is, I'm kinda' stuck with the bigger battery versions as I can't get much smaller and still have the performance that this has. But what's nice is the same basic mechanism can be made for HO scale narrow gauge using N track and it doesn't have to get any higher so scale heights can be as little as 35" from rail to top of a body shell. That's small enough to model just about anything.

If this goes into production an N track chassis will be built for that purpose as well as many other small locos like the Whitcombs, GE 25 tonners, and maybe even the Fairmont Speeders for HO, maybe even N. Got the performance sorted out but still updating the chassis design for final testing and packaging of various features and options (like DCC control) so completed models with all of the accoutrements won't be out anytime too soon. It's been fun and an amazing challenge getting this kind of performance in such a small package as well as a first class lesson in why nothing like it exists. It could be the poster child for the old saying, "The devil is in the details".

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